Fifty great heroes: 26-50

The second part of Lord Ashcroft's list looking at 50 brave heroes whose
military exploits won them medals.

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Royal treatment: the Queen chats with Stuart Archer, far right, who received his GC in 1940, and turns 96 next month

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Brandon Moss was praised for his 'superhuman efforts'

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Honoured: Charles Upham receives his Victoria Cross from King George VI. As a POW he was branded as 'dangerous' by his captors

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Female resistance: Odette Samson was carrying out intelligence work in France when she was arrested by the German forces. She was brutally tortured and spent two years in solitary but gave nothing away

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Johnson Beharry became the first person in over two decades to be awarded the Victoria Cross after he heroically saved the lives of his comrades in two separate incidents in Iraq in 2004Photo: AFP/GETTY

By Lord Ashcroft

8:01AM GMT 16 Jan 2011

26) Stuart Archer, George Cross

Stuart “Archie” Archer pursued a career as an architect until, in January 1940, he was commissioned as an officer into the Corps of Royal Engineers. He quickly became a veteran bomb disposal expert and, by the end of August 1940, he had already dealt with some 200 bombs. These incidents included difficult and dangerous work on August 27, 1940, when he had to deal with the first enemy bomb fitted with a new type of delayed-action fuse. This was deliberately designed to kill the bomb disposal expert – and others within range – after the bomb had initially failed to detonate.

On September 2, 1940, Acting Lieutenant Archer was presented with his most difficult challenge after four of the most sustained days of bombing of the entire Second World War. At 9am Archer had been told that a large number of unexploded bombs were hampering attempts by firefighters to control a major blaze at the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company’s refinery near Swansea. Close to a fierce blaze, he was shown four unexploded bombs, one directly under an oil tank. Archer and his men worked in searing heat to tackle the devices. He showed amazing coolness and courage suspended upside down as he tackled his daunting task.

Three bombs exploded near the team but Archer and his men avoided injury. After more than four hours, Archer made the device safe. He emerged from his experience as the first person to pull out a fuse from an anti-withdrawal booby trap and live to tell the tale. His GC was announced in September 1940 when his citation said he had “enjoyed unbelievable immunity from death and showed sustained nerve and courage of the highest order”. Archer, who rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, will be 96 next month and is the oldest living recipient of the GC.

27) Brandon Moss, George Cross

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Brandon Moss, one of seven children, was serving as a special constable in the Coventry Constabulary when his home city came under a sustained attack from the Luftwaffe in the autumn of 1940. A total of 437 aircraft drooped 394 tons of high explosives and 127 parachute mines on the night of November 14-15. Under a full moon, the city’s 250,000 population endured 11 hours of relentless attack, which cost 380 lives.

Much of the city centre, including Coventry’s historic cathedral, was destroyed by the infamous bombings. No individual did more that night for Coventry than Moss. He initially stood defiantly as the bombs dropped and surveyed the devastation all around him. Amid the chaos and carnage, a bomb had dropped directly on one house, demolishing it and burying three occupants beneath the rubble. With collapsing debris and leaking gas, the situation looked as hopeless as it was dangerous. However, Moss, working on his own, cleared a tiny space through the ruins and crawled through to find the three occupants alive. One by one, he led the residents to safety.

As soon as he finished, he learnt that more people had been buried in a neighbouring property. Moss dodged falling beams and debris to pull another person out alive, while four other dead bodies were recovered from the house. Moss had worked for more than seven hours – from 11pm to 6.30am the next day – without a break to save the four lives. Moss was awarded the GC in December 1940 when the citation praised his “superhuman efforts and utter disregard for personal injury”.

After building up the world’s largest collection of VCs, I purchased my first GC – along with Moss’s service medals – in the summer of 2010.

28) Charles Upham, Victoria Cross and Bar

Charles Upham is one of just three men ever to receive the VC and Bar – the equivalent of a double VC. He is also the only combative soldier to receive the double decoration – the other two men were medical officers who heroically tended to the wounded.

The former New Zealand sheep farmer was as tactically astute as he was brave and is widely considered to be the most outstanding soldier of the Second World War. After the German invasion of Greece in April 1941, Second Lieutenant Upham, who was a platoon commander, joined the force to repel the invaders and was awarded the VC for nine days of skill, leadership and heroism in 1941.

From May 22-30, on the island of Crete, he destroyed enemy posts and penetrated deep behind enemy lines. He personally killed 22 German soldiers while leading his isolated platoon out of danger. Yet during this time he was suffering from dysentery and two serious wounds. Upham was awarded the Bar to his VC for bravery on July 14-15 1942.

His New Zealand force was stranded after being promised armoured support in Egypt that never arrived. So Upham led his company in a “savage attack” on German and Italian strong-points, destroying a tank, several guns and vehicles with his favourite weapon – the hand grenade. He fought on long after his arm was shattered by a machine-gun bullet, but eventually, virtually unable to move from exhaustion and his wounds, he was taken as a prisoner of war.

As a POW, he was nicknamed “Pug” – for pugnacious. He was branded as “dangerous” by his captors and, after trying to escape, was imprisoned in Colditz. Upham was freed by advancing US troops in April 1945.

29) Geoffrey Keyes, Victoria Cross

Admiral’s son Temporary Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Keyes was awarded the VC for one of the most daring missions of the Second World War. Before the war, Keyes had joined the Army’s Royal Scots Greys before volunteering for the newly formed Commando organisation in the summer of 1940.

He embarked for the Middle East in January 1941 and by the autumn he had won over General Headquarters Cairo to sanction an attempt to destroy the German HQ 250 miles behind enemy lines at Beda Littoria, Libya. Furthermore, the intention was to capture General Erwin Rommel, the commander of the Afrika Korps. Keyes was one of some 59 men who were transported to enemy-occupied territory in two submarines and, then, small boats. However, in rough seas and torrential rain, only 36 made it ashore.

By the fourth night, Temporary Lieutenant Colonel Keyes and his men were a few hundred yards from their “objectives”. After dispatching a covering party to block off the approach to the house, Keyes and two other men crawled to the main house where they attacked the occupants with gunfire and grenades on the night of November 17-18, 1941. Keyes, 24, emptied his revolver in the first room “with great success”, but he was shot as he entered the second room and died. Only two men made it back to British lines after 37 days in the desert.

It later emerged that Rommel had never used the targeted building. Sir Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, comforted Admiral Sir Roger Keyes over the loss of his son during Operation Flipper, telling him: “I would far rather have Geoffrey alive than Rommel dead.”

30) Mahmood Durrani, George Cross

Captain Mahmood Durrani was the only Japanese POW to be awarded the GC and survive his brutal ordeal. After Malaya was overrun by the Japanese in 1942, Durrani and a small group from the Indian State Forces were cut off from their comrades. They remained in hiding for three months before they were betrayed by the enemy-sponsored Indian National Army (INA).

While he was in a POW camp, Durrani not only refused to join the INA, but he did all he could to gather intelligence on this subversive organisation and its attempts to infiltrate members into India. Durrani even acted as a double agent setting up a school to send men back to India “to champion the Nationalist ideology of the Indian National Congress”.

In fact, the men had been hand-picked by Durrani to spy for Britain. The Japanese eventually became suspicious of his activities and tortured him to try to identify his accomplices: burning cigarettes were repeatedly stubbed out on his legs. When Durrani was handed over to the INA, he was even more brutally tortured and condemned to death.

In prison, he suffered from dysentery and near starvation, going for days without food or water. However, Subha Chandra Bose, the INA leader, insisted on extracting a confession from his defiant prisoner before he executed him and Durrani’s life was eventually spared by the Japanese surrender.

He was awarded the GC for his “outstanding example of deliberately cold-blooded bravery” in May 1946.

In his autobiography, The Sixth Column, Durrani wrote of how he had survived his ordeal as a POW: “I laughed contemptuously in my mind at the futile attempts of my torturers to defeat me in keeping my sacred resolve.” After the war, Durrani served with distinction in the Pakistani army.

31) Odette Sansom, George Cross

Odette Sansom was the first woman to be awarded the GC – and few recipients can have done more to earn the decoration. French-born Odette Brailly – her maiden name – married an Englishman and was living in Britain when the Second World War broke out.

After volunteering information to the War Office on German-occupied France, she was recruited to the Special Operations Executive, which had been formed after the fall of France. Sansom, who had three young daughters, was motivated by her love of France and Britain and she was determined to work with the French Resistance.

In October 1942, she landed in France from a fishing boat and worked in Cannes with Peter Churchill, the leader of the so-called Spindle circuit. However, after carrying out vital intelligence work, she and Churchill were arrested. They came up with a cover story that Churchill was related to the Prime Minister and that they were married – and this may have saved their lives.

However, at the notorious Fresnes prison outside Paris, Sansom was brutally tortured during numerous interrogations. Her back was burned with a hot iron and her toenails were pulled out, but she gave nothing away.

In June 1943, she was sentenced to death but she was instead reprieved and taken to a concentration camp in northern Germany. After spending two years in solitary, she was handed over to the Allies by the German camp commandant at the end of the war. She was awarded the GC in August 1946 when her citation praised her “courage, endurance and self-sacrifice of the highest possible order”. Her marriage did not survive and she later married, first, Peter Churchill, and later, Geoffrey Hallowes, another Resistance fighter. Sansom was the only one of the three female Resistance workers awarded the GC to survive her ordeal at the hands of the Germans.

My admiration for Sansom is matched by my respect for Violette Szabo and Noor Inayat Khan, the two women GC recipients who were killed in captivity.

Captain Selwyn Jepson, the senior recruiting officer for the SOE during the war, told how he had recruited women – despite widespread opposition to the move – because they were better at undercover work than men.

“Women, as you must know, have a far greater capacity for cool and lonely courage than men,” he said in an interview after the war for the Imperial War Museum.

32) Frederick Peters, Victoria Cross

Frederick “Fritz” Peters, who was awarded five bravery awards spanning the two world wars, was one of the most decorated Canadians of the Second World War.

He had served in the Royal Navy during the Great War, being awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1915 and the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) in 1918. Peters was awarded a Bar to his DSC for bravery early in the Second World War.

Thereafter, he enjoyed a fascinating career after being posted to the Directorate of Naval Intelligence. While at the so-called “School of Spies”, he worked with Guy Burgess and Kim Philby at a training centre in Hertfordshire that was geared to developing operations for the special services.

Acting Captain Peters received his VC for a daring mission to seize a vital position in the well-defended harbour of Oran, Morocco, in the early hours of November 8, 1942.

Peters was in charge of two Royal Navy ships, HMS Walney and HMS Hartland, that were operating with the Special Boat Squadron. Peters was on board Walney which released three canoes manned by SBS men with “mobile mines”.

He steered the ship as it rammed an enemy destroyer and then headed towards the jetty in the face of a point-blank fire from shore batteries, a destroyer and a cruiser. The Walney reached the jetty on fire and went down with colours still flying. Blinded in one eye, Peters was the only survivor from the 17 men on the bridge.

For this act of bravery, he was awarded the American DSC, as well as the VC. Yet five days after his great act of valour, Peters’ plane, flying from Gibraltar to England, crashed off Plymouth killing all five passengers. He died never knowing of his last decorations.

33) William Sparks, Distinguished Service Medal

The Cockleshell Heroes raid was one of the most daring Special Forces raids of the Second World War. It was planned and carried out by the Royal Marine Boom Patrol Detachment, which later became a section of the new Special Boat Squadron.

Twelve men in six Cockle Mark II canoes were chosen to target shipping in Bordeaux in German-occupied France. The aim of Operation Frankton was to carry limpet mines on the canoes, which would be planted on some 12 merchant ships. After a three-day journey up the Gironde estuary, travelling only at night, the intention was for the men to scuttle the canoes and escape through France to Spain.

The party, led by Major “Blondie” Hasler, was taken by submarine close to the mouth of the estuary. Before they had even set off, Hasler had warned them that their personal safety came second to the success of the mission.

One of the canoes was damaged as it was taken out on deck and its two-man crew therefore had to remain on the submarine, leaving five canoes and 10 men. They then lost three canoes and six men on the journey up the estuary, leaving only two canoes and four men to carry out the mission in December 1942.

Hasler and his partner, Corporal William “Bill” Sparks split up from their two comrades, placing the mines on boats in different areas of the harbour. After carrying out the mission successfully, the four men scuttled the two canoes and split up into pairs for their journey to northern Spain.

“See you in Granada. We will keep a couple of pints for you,” Sparks shouted to his two comrades as they disappeared. After hiding out for weeks, Hasler and Sparks made their journey on foot and by train, eventually trekking over the Pyrenees to Spain: they were the only survivors because the eight others had been lost at sea or had been captured, tortured and executed.

In June 1943, Hasler was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Sparks was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. I had been enthralled by the story of the Cockleshell Heroes ever since I was a boy: the film The Cockleshell Heroes came out in 1955, when I was just nine years old. I was therefore thrilled to be able to purchase Sparks’ gallantry and service medals when they came up for auction in 1988.

34) Hugh Seagrim, George Cross

Major Hugh Seagrim and Lieutenant Colonel Derek Seagrim, who were brothers, represent the only instance of a VC and GC being awarded to members of the same family. The latter’s award was posthumous for valour in Tunisia, north Africa, in March 1943.

Hugh Seagrim served with the 19th Hyderabad Rifles in Burma from early 1943. He was part of an elite special group that was fighting the Japanese with hit-and-run tactics in the Karen Hills. By the end of 1943, the Japanese intensified their efforts to track down the group, code-named Force 136.

In order to put pressure on Seagrim, they arrested 270 Karens, including village elders: many were killed and others were tortured. In March 1944, the Japanese got a message to Seagrim that they would end their campaign of reprisals if he gave himself up.

Despite being aware of the horrors that awaited him, he surrendered on March 15, 1944. In September, he and eight others captured from his patrol were court-martialled and condemned to death.

After the sentences were announced, Seagrim addressed the court and urged that only he should die – because the other men were simply obeying orders. After the initial plea was rejected, he wanted to launch another appeal but his men decided if their commander was going to die, they would die with him.

Seagrim, a vicar’s son who wanted to be a missionary after the war, went bravely to his death on September 14, 1944, aged 35. His GC, personally approved by Lord Mountbatten, was awarded two years later.

Seagrim was also awarded a posthumous MBE and a posthumous Distinguished Service Order. After the war, his mother, Annabel, wore his GC and her son Derek’s VC at a parade in East Sussex: it is believed to be the only time that anyone has worn both decorations in public.

35) Forest Yeo-Thomas, George Cross

Forest Yeo-Thomas, who was widely known as “Tommy”, was so disappointed that he had been too young to serve in the British Army during the First World War that he served in the US Army, apparently from around 1918-22. After joining the RAF in 1939, he underwent radar training and left France on one of the last boats before the Germans invaded. As a fluent French speaker, he also received training as an intelligence officer.

On February 25, 1943, he was parachuted into France to join the Free French Secret Service. For the next two years, he showed incredible courage under the code name of “White Rabbit”. He sometimes spent several weeks in France on daring missions.

However, after being parachuted into France in February 1944, he was betrayed to the Gestapo and he was caught and tortured.

At one point, after his wrists were cut by chains, he suffered blood poisoning and nearly lost his left arm. He nevertheless made two escape bids and his punishment was four months in solitary confinement. During this time, he was tortured relentlessly but revealed nothing.

More escape attempts took place later but, as the war drew to a close, he eventually succeeded in leading a party of 10 French POWs through German patrols to American lines. He was awarded the GC in February 1946 for his “most amazing fortitude and devotion to duty”.

Wing Commander Yeo-Thomas had already been awarded for Military Cross (MC) and Bar (a second MC) for bravery earlier in the war. He was also decorated by both France and Poland for his exceptional courage.

36) Anthony Greville-Bell, Distinguished Service Order

'The great thing about Major Tony,” said one SAS corporal, “is that he doesn’t get you killed unless he absolutely has to.” This was the tribute to Major Anthony Greville-Bell from one of his men after the officer had led a highly successful SAS sabotage team for 73 days behind enemy lines before a 300-mile trek back to the Allied Forces.

Operation Speedwell, which took place between September and November 1943, had been devised by Captain PH Pinckney. The aim was to target the main troop-carrying railway lines in northern Italy.

Greville-Bell, an Australian, was in one of the “sticks” – small groups of men parachuted into different areas. In his stick, there were seven men and he was second-in-command. But he had to take command when Captain Pinckney went missing in action. Although Greville-Bell had been injured in the drop (he had broken two ribs), he led his party, which destroyed three trains and put the railway out of action for 19 days.

Yet his diary entry later revealed how close he had come to having to drop out of the mission on day three: “Walked again, but was in great pain, and was finished after two miles. Decided to have one more night’s rest and if not able to keep up would send Daniels and Tomasso [his comrades] on without me.” Later Greville-Bell even stopped off in the Tuscan mountains to train an army of Italian partisans, subsequently writing: “The guerrillas were not all that good, but the chianti was excellent.”

Afterwards, suffering from near starvation and in appalling weather, Greville-Bell led his party across the Apennine mountains and through enemy lines to safety.

During the mission, he had suffered from snow blindness and frostbite. Greville-Bell was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in September 1944 for “unfailing judgment in most difficult circumstances and inspiration to those under his command”.

Later, after being promoted to command a squadron, he received two serious wounds in two further missions to Occupied France – one before and one after the D-Day landings in June 1944.

37) Bruce Ogden-Smith, Distinguished Service Order

By the end of 1943, the Allies were actively planning to invade German-occupied France and thereby create a second front. With the United States now part of the war, the Allies were able to plan from a position of strength. Operation Overlord was the code name given to the long-awaited invasion of France.

In turn, Operation Neptune was the code name given to the naval assault phase of Operation Overlord. Before the details of the invasion could be formulated, intelligence was needed about the nature of the beaches that the Allies intended to land upon.

Enter Sergeant Bruce Ogden-Smith, one of the most courageous and colourful characters of the Second World War. Ogden-Smith had already taken part in a daring intelligence-gathering raid on German-occupied Sark in October 1942, when he was given an extraordinary new task. He was asked to swim secretly in the dead of night to French beaches to conduct “beach reconnaissance”. By now, he was part of the Commandos’ fledgling Special Boat Squadron.

The success – or failure – of the Normandy landings depended on obtaining detailed and accurate information of the beaches. So Ogden-Smith and a comrade were taken close to the shore by a small landing craft – and then left to swim ashore in a waterproof suit, with a torch, compass and other equipment. They were also armed with a waterproof Colt .45 and a fighting knife in case they encountered enemy soldiers.

After getting samples of sand from the beach, the men swam hundreds of yards out to sea and flashed their torches to be retrieved. Ogden-Smith was awarded the Military Medal (MM) and Distinguished Conduct Medal for two daring missions during December 1943 and January 1944. He missed his June 6, 1944 investiture to receive his MM – because he was on Omaha Beach taking part in the D-Day landings.

38) Norman Jackson, Victoria Cross

Sergeant Norman Jackson was awarded the VC for a quite astonishing act of bravery on the night of April 26, 1944. Serving in the RAF Volunteer Reserve, he had completed his scheduled tour of 30 operations on April 24, but volunteered for one more “for luck” shortly after being told his wife had given birth to their first son.

Jackson was the flight engineer on a Lancaster which had successfully dropped its bombs over Germany, when it was suddenly attacked by a fighter at about 20,000ft. The Lancaster received several direct hits and a fire started near a fuel tank on the upper surface of the starboard wing.

Although wounded, Jackson received the captain’s permission to climb onto the wing, wearing his parachute pack and clutching a fire extinguisher, to try to put out the flames. The plane was travelling at 200mph and, to make matters worse, the parachute opened and the canopy and rigging lines spilt into the cockpit. Undeterred, Jackson continued but he slipped and dropped his fire extinguisher.

Soon the fire spread and Jackson’s face, hands and clothing were badly burned. Next he was dragged through the flames and fell towards the ground with his partially-inflated parachute burning. The captain ordered the crew to abandon the aircraft – and four of the remaining crew landed safely and two perished.

Jackson was found badly injured by German civilians and was later paraded as a POW in a “pitiable state”. He made two unsuccessful attempts to escape but was returned to Britain on V-E Day and was later promoted to Warrant Officer. Jackson’s VC, awarded for one of the most remarkable stories of the war, was announced in October 1945.

39) Andy Mynarski, Victoria Cross

The story behind Warrant Officer Andy Mynarski’s VC is one of the most remarkable in the history of the decoration. Mynarksi, who served in the Royal Canadian Air Force, was a member of a seven-man crew flying Lancaster bombers. They were a closely-knit team and had flown a dozen sorties together.

The gunners, Mynarski and Pat Brophy, were isolated from the rest of the crew and had grown particularly close. Before going to bed, Mynarski used to give Brophy an exaggerated salute and say: “Good night, sir!”

On June 12, 1944, their Lancaster took part in a bombing raid but en route was badly hit by a German fighter plane. Three explosions rocked the plane at 12.13am and soon afterwards the captain ordered the crew to bail out. However, just as Mynarski was about to jump, he saw Brophy was struggling to free himself.

Mynarski crawled to the rear of the plane but was forced back by the flames. Before jumping in his burning clothes, he saluted Brophy and spoke what his friend, even though he could not hear him, knew were three words: “Good night, sir!”

Brophy was hurtling to what seemed a certain death but, just before the Lancaster slammed into a French field, its port wing hit a large tree which ripped off the burning wing and cushioned the fall.

Brophy, who had instinctively adopted the crash position even though he was convinced he was about to die, miraculously survived, meaning the only member of the crew to perish was Mynarski: he died from severe burns. Brophy only told the full story when he was released as a POW in 1945.

Mynarksi was awarded the VC in October 1946 for “valour of the highest order”. Meanwhile, Brophy later wrote: “I’ll always believe that a divine providence intervened because of what I had seen – so the world might know of a gallant man who laid down his life for a friend.”

40) Agansing Rai, Victoria Cross

Agansing Rai is the only Gurkha VC in my 168-strong collection. Rai, who had the rank of naik, was serving in the 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles with the 17th Indian – or so-called “Black Cat” – Division during the Burma Campaign of 1944.

The fighting on June 24 and 25 had been exceptionally fierce and the Japanese enemy, who had superior forces, had captured two posts.

On June 26, a company from the 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles was dispatched to recapture the positions. During the attack, the company became pinned down by heavy and accurate machine-gun fire from “Mortar Bluff”.

Rai, appreciating a further delay would result in heavier casualties, fearlessly charged the position, personally killing three of the four crew. Inspired by this incredible act of bravery, the section surged forward across the bullet-swept ground and routed the enemy garrison.

However, the Gurkha position then came under heavy fire from a 37mm gun. Rai, aged 24, again led his men towards the gun and soon only three of his section were left standing. They eventually took the position after Rai killed three enemy soldiers and his men killed two more.

Finally, Rai took part in an assault on “Water Piquet” when, advancing with a grenade in one hand and a submachine gun in the other, he killed four enemy soldiers who were firing from the bunker. The citation for his VC announced in October 1944 praised Rai’s “calm display of courage and complete contempt for danger”.

Rai and his men had helped to thwart Japanese ambitions to invade India. Rai received his VC in 1945 from the Viceroy of India, Field Marshal Lord Wavell.

41) James Magennis, Victoria Cross

James Magennis’s VC was the first gallantry medal that I ever purchased – at a Sotheby’s auction in 1986. Acting Leading Seaman James “Mick” Magennis was awarded his decoration for bravery close to the end of the Second World War.

Magennis, who served in the Submarine Branch of the Royal Navy, had volunteered for “special and hazardous duties”, which meant working with “midget submarines”, or X-craft. By the spring of 1945, he was the diver in a three-man midget submarine, XE.3, which was tasked with sinking the Takao, a Japanese cruiser, in the Johor Straits, Singapore.

The craft was towed to the area by a conventional submarine and, by 3.03pm on July 31, 1945, it was positioned directly under the Takao. Magennis slid out of the submarine’s “wet and dry” compartment and placed limpet mines on the cruiser, chipping away barnacles for half an hour to attach the magnetic explosives.

Lieutenant Ian Fraser now attempted to release two larger side charges, each with two tons of high explosive, but one stuck to the midget submarine. For a time, the submarine was also wedged beneath the Takao on a falling tide. It seemed the three men would be blown up by their own explosives, due to detonate in six hours’ time.

Magennis, exhausted and whose hands had been shredded by the barnacles, now slipped into the water again and eventually freed the charge. The crew raced to safety and the charges later detonated, sinking the Takao.

42) Derek Kinne, George Cross

Joiner’s son Fusilier Derek Kinne was captured by the Chinese communist forces on April 25, 1951, during the Korean War. From the moment he was seized, he had two priorities: to escape and to raise the morale among prisoners.

Kinne first escaped within 24 hours but was recaptured within days as he attempted to rejoin the British forces. During a harsh one-month march to prison camps, Kinne emerged as an outstanding leader who inspired his fellow prisoners. His treatment as a POW was worse than his comrades because he consistently defied his captors.

After refusing to inform on his comrades – and for striking a Chinese officer who had assaulted him – he was beaten up and tied for periods of 24 hours. He was even made to stand on tiptoe with a noose around his neck so that if he relaxed he would have been throttled.

In June 1952, Kinne escaped a second time but was again recaptured. From July 1 to 20, he was kept in a tiny box cell where he was made to sit to attention all day and was denied any washing facilities. In October 1952, he was sentenced to 18 months in solitary confinement for trying to escape.

After an armistice was signed between the two warring sides in July 1953, Kinne was freed the following month after 28 months of brutal treatment. He became known as “the man North Korea could not break”.

His GC was awarded in April 1954 and his citation said: “His powers of resistance and his determination to oppose and fight the enemy to the maximum were beyond praise.”

Kinne wrote vividly about his treatment in his 1955 autobiography, The Wooden Boxes. Today he lives in the United States and celebrated his 80th birthday last week .

43) Sekonaia Takavesi, Distinguished Conduct Medal

Soldiers do not come any tougher than Sekonaia Takavesi. He became – in the words of one of his Army superiors – “a legend in his own time within the SAS”.

Takavesi, who was born in Fiji, became a member of the SAS two years after joining the Army in 1961. In the early Seventies, he took part in the secret war in Oman against the Adoo rebels. By July 1972, the Adoo were looking for a major victory in their conflict with the Sultan’s troops and his SAS allies.

On the morning of July 19, the Adoo launched a carefully planned attack to capture the small market town of Mirbat on the Arabian Sea. The SAS heard the Adoo attack a small detachment of Dhofar Gendamerie before waves of enemy soldiers headed towards the British Army Training Team (BATT) house.

Trooper Talaiasi Labalaba initially fired the 25-pounder gun alone (for maximum affect the gun should be manned by five men). When Labalaba was wounded, Trooper Takavesi picked up his self-loading rifle and ran from the BATT house to the gun-pit, dodging a hail of bullets as he went. Eventually, Labalaba was shot dead, leaving Takavesi alone for 15 minutes until two more comrades ran to his aid, one of whom was fatally wounded.

The Battle of Mirbat became a turning point in the war. Takavesi, awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in April 1974, rose to the rank of staff sergeant, having survived injuries which would have killed a lesser man. In 1980, he was also involved in the Iranian Embassy siege in London.

44) James Beaton, George Cross

By the spring of 1974, Inspector Jim Beaton had been Princess Anne’s protection officer for less than a year. Shortly before 8pm on March 20 that year, he was in the front seat of her Daimler when the Princess, then 23, was returning to Buckingham Palace from an engagement in the City.

Captain Mark Phillips, her then husband, her lady-in-waiting and her driver were also in the vehicle when a white Escort swerved in front of it in The Mall. The driver of the Escort got out and, as Beaton went to see what was wrong, the man drew a revolver and shot him.

Despite being shot in the right shoulder, Beaton drew his handgun. His first shot missed and then his gun jammed. As the assailant tried to force the Princess from the car, Beaton entered the back of the car through the rear passenger door and crawled across to protect the Royal couple, being shot a second time, this time in the hand.

Beaton now tried to knock the man over by opening the rear passenger door quickly, but the gunman fired again, hitting Beaton in the stomach and pelvis. Beaton remained conscious but he was no longer able to offer any resistance.

Passers-by and police eventually thwarted the kidnap attempt by Ian Ball but not before three other men were shot and injured. Beaton made a full recovery and his GC was announced in September 1974.

45) Michael lane, Military Medal

During a career in the SAS spanning more than 18 years, Michael “Bronco” Lane rose from trooper to major. In a deadly fighting force where heroics were not uncommon, Lane was nevertheless a modern-day SAS legend.

During May 1976, Sergeant Lane took part in the Army Mountaineering Association’s expedition to Mount Everest. After reaching the summit, he and Sergeant John Stokes encountered “white out” conditions as they made their descent.

As darkness fell, they were some distance from their camp, still situated at 27,500ft. They were forced to bivouac at night on an exposed and dangerous knife-edge ridge. Lane and Stokes knew their chances of surviving the night in some of the worst conditions ever seen on Everest were slim.

By morning, they were barely alive and Lane had fed Stokes oxygen from his own bottle to keep him alive. The two were exhausted and frost-bitten but incredibly they made it down the mountain.

Lane lost all 10 toes and the five digits on one hand but did he feel sorry for himself? Not a bit. He even went on to climb Everest again and remained in the SAS.

The expedition leader who successfully recommended Lane for the British Empire Medal wrote: “I consider the conditions under which they reached the summit of Everest to be the worst under which the mountain has ever been climbed. There are few mountaineers who could have survived such conditions.”

In 1979, Lane was awarded the Military Medal for bravery in Northern Ireland after he had special boots made for him and the safety catch to his Armalite rifle extended so it could be operated by his shortened fingers.

Lane had a black sense of humour – he preserved his frostbitten toes and fingers in formaldehyde in the SAS’s regimental mess.

Lane, who was in the control room during the Iranian Embassy siege of 1980, still keeps fit by cycling and hill walking.

46) Ian McKay, Victoria Cross

Sergeant Ian McKay was awarded the VC for incredible bravery while serving in the Parachute Regiment during the Falklands War of 1982. Known simply as “Mac”, he made his first tour of Northern Ireland when he was 17. By the time the Falklands War broke out, he was married with two children.

During the night of June 11-12, the Paras launched a secret attack on an enemy battalion on Mount Longdon, an important objective in the battle for Port Stanley. After the initial target was secured, McKay, a platoon sergeant, was ordered to clear the northern side of the long east/west ridge at a time when the enemy was now fully alerted to their presence.

At one point, the platoon commander took McKay and some other men to reconnoitre a position. However, the commander was shot in the leg and McKay took over. He decided to convert the reconnaissance into an attack. Taking three men with him, he broke cover and charged the enemy position. They braved a hail of fire and on reaching the position, McKay killed the enemy with hand grenades. He was killed at the moment of victory and fell dead on the bunker.

His posthumous V C was announced in October 1982 and the citation said: “Undeterred he performed with outstanding selflessness, perseverance and courage. With a complete disregard of his own safety, he displayed courage and leadership of the highest order, and was an inspiration to all around him.”

47) Johnson Beharry, Victoria Cross

Private Johnson Beharry was the first man since 1969 to survive the action for which he was awarded the VC – a sign in itself of just how difficult it had become to receive the decoration.

Born on the Caribbean island of Grenada, he joined the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment aged 22 in August 2001. He became the driver of Warrior armoured vehicles, and served in Kosovo and Northern Ireland prior to being posted to Iraq.

He was awarded the VC for two acts of bravery in Iraq in 2004. On May 1, Beharry’s company had been asked to take supplies to coalition forces in the troubled city of Al Amarah. The platoon commander’s Warrior, driven by Beharry, came under attack from Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs). Beharry drove off but further RPGs left his vehicle on fire and thick, black smoke filled the Warrior.

Beharry opened the hatch and drove the Warrior through a barricade, followed by five other Warriors. The vehicle was then hit again, forcing Beharry to drive for nearly a mile with his hatch up and his head exposed to enemy fire. On June 11, his Warrior was ambushed again and an RPG hit its frontal armour just six inches from Beharry’s head. Despite his serious head injuries and in dreadful pain, he reversed the Warrior out of the danger zone, before collapsing unconscious. His two acts of bravery were estimated to have saved 30 lives.

His VC was announced in March 2005 when General Sir Mike Jackson, then the Chief of the General Staff, said: “I can’t remember when I was last as proud of the Army as I am today.” Despite his horrendous injuries, Beharry still serves in the Army.

48) Matthew Croucher, George Cross

Matt Croucher served with 40 Commando, Royal Marines, in Helmand, Afghanistan, as part of Operation Herrick VII from 2007-8. The son of two teachers, Croucher was based in the Sangin Valley.

On February 9, 2008, he was part of a 40-strong group tasked with searching a Taliban compound, which was suspected of being a bomb-making factory. The men had located the site and regrouped when Croucher felt a tension below his knee and heard the distinctive noise of a “pin” ejecting from a hand grenade.

He knew he had three to five seconds before the grenade exploded. After shouting: “Grenade! Take cover!”, Croucher made a split-second decision to twist his body so that his day sack was on the grenade and he was lying on top of it.

When the grenade exploded, Croucher was thrown into the air. Not only had he saved his comrades’ lives, but he received only minor injuries himself.

He was awarded the GC, rather than the VC, because it was decided that he was not “in the face of the enemy” when the grenade went off.

49) Kim Hughes, George Cross

Staff Sergeant Kim Hughes, of the Royal Logistic Corps, went to Helmand province, Afghanistan, in April 2009 as a high-threat Improvised Explosive Device Disposal (IEDD) operator.

Already an experienced bomb-disposal expert, Hughes took part in Operation Panther’s Claw and worked closely with the Danish Battle Group. By August 2009 Hughes was tasked with providing close support to 2 Rifles Battle Group during an operation to clear a route south-west of Sangin.

On August 16, he was called to an IED minefield – what the Army described as a “harrowing and chaotic situation” – where two devices had exploded, killing two people and injuring five more.

When he reached the first casualty, he found another Victim Operated Improvised Explosive Device (VOIED) within a metre of the casualty. He carried out a high-risk “manual neutralisation” knowing that any error would have been fatal for both men.

Hughes then turned to help the remaining casualties and to retrieve the dead. As he cleared a path to the victims, he found two more devices and again carried out high-risk manual neutralisations. Finally, he disposed of a further four more devices.

His GC was announced in March 2010 when his citation said: “Dealing with any form of IED is dangerous; to deal with seven VOIEDs linked in a single circuit, in a mass casualty scenario, using manual neutralisation techniques once, never mind three times, is the single most outstanding act of explosive ordnance disposal ever recorded in Afghanistan.”

50) Olaf Schmid, George Cross

Staff Sergeant Olaf “Oz” Schmid, of the Royal Logistic Corps, had already dealt with 70 confirmed Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in five months, as his tour of Helmand Province, Afghanistan, was drawing to a close.

On numerous occasions from June to October 2009, he had displayed exceptional courage to help his comrades and civilians. In an incident on October 8, Schmid had conducted a high-risk “manual neutralisation” to save the lives of numerous Afghans.

On October 31, he had already dealt with three IEDs near Forward Operating Base Jackson, when a searcher found a command wire running down an alleyway they were using. Schmid and his team were trapped in the alleyway not knowing in which direction the IED had been placed.

He seized the initiative and eventually traced the wire to a complex command-wire IED which incorporated three linked and buried main charges. However, as he dealt with the device, it exploded. He had sacrificed his life, aged 30, for the sake of his comrades.

Schmid’s GC was announced in March 2010 and his citation read: “His selfless gallantry, his devotion to duty, and his indefatigable courage displayed time and time again saved countless military and civilian lives and is worthy of the highest recognition.”